City crews commended for fast action

The regular meeting of the City of La Junta Board of Utilities Commissioners commended the crews and management of the Electric and Water Departments for their quick action after the micro burst that took out 10 power poles, two transformer stations and necessitated repairs to two others on June 17.

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By Bette McFarren

LA Junta Tribune - La Junta, CO

By Bette McFarren

Posted Jul. 10, 2013 at 1:00 PM

By Bette McFarren

Posted Jul. 10, 2013 at 1:00 PM

The regular meeting of the City of La Junta Board of Utilities Commissioners commended the crews and management of the Electric and Water Departments for their quick action after the micro burst that took out 10 power poles, two transformer stations and necessitated repairs to two others on June 17. The power outages were minimal because of the fast action of the departments in transferring the power sources after the event. Only the power along Highway 50 and some blocks adjacent to it were out for an appreciable time. Electric Superintendent Reuben DeLeon said, "All residents had power that same evening, with only three businesses without power. We had to reroute primary service to get residents back in service." Jim Wallace, whose Wallace Oil took part of the direct hit, was at the meeting and expressed his thanks also for the quick repairs.

DeLeon thanked the sanitation and water crews for their quick help. City Manager Rick Klein said, "Sometimes people ask if we really need all the equipment we have, and there's your answer."

There was an outage at the Gardner Substation that involved an arrester that failed on the transformer. The substation was out of service for five days. The arrester was ordered and replaced and the sub was put back in service. The line crew is continuing to work on the street lights that need to be replaced along third street due to age and rot. The steel poles are being replaced with aluminum poles. The crew continues to tree trim east of the Gardner Substation and up to 10th Street and will continue south.

Director of Water and Wastewater Joe Kelley said that they were successful in negotiating a three year delay on more stringent stream standards for selenium by the Water Quality Control Commission. Meanwhile, the department is tasked with developing an alternative that would not require installing specialized treatment equipment. The new water main on Highway 10 west of the cemetery is fully operational. The old main line will be disconnected this week. Wells 7 and 15 are down due to bad pumps. New pumps are expected to be delivered in two weeks. Meanwhile, the crews are cleaning the scale off those well casings with the help of Colorado Well Service.

The Environmental Impact Statement for the Conduit will be released officially by The Bureau of Reclamation next month. Then the Record of Decision will be published. If an alternative is selected in the Record of Decision, then Arkansas Valley Conduit water deliveries could begin in about 10 years.

Officials of CBR YouthConnect, represented by Chuck Thompson, CEO, appeared before the commissioners to ask that any measure possible be taken to lower and possibly postpone utilities payments on the CBR property, which is no longer in full use. Members of the board Kirk Snyder, Bob Cody and Jim Wallace were also present. City Attorney Phil Malouff said that since public utilities are involved, special concessions cannot be given. However, City Manager Rick Klein assured Thompson that whatever measures could be taken would be taken. One is reclassification from a large commercial user to a smaller commercial user.